//------------------------------//
// 121 - Temporal Snare 
// Story: Songs of the Spheres 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

It was impossible to fight John’s power head on. 

Every action could be undone. Every battle twisted into a victory for Gallifrey. Every pivotal moment altered in favor of the Time Lords. Banning time travel from specific universes did nothing to prevent this – John could appear anywhere that the Gallifreyans wanted him to with almost no limitations. If the Gallifreyans were to send him back to the start of the war to remove Nanoha, they could end the conflict in an instant. 

But they didn’t do that. It seemed like an obvious course of action at first, to just solve their problem before it began. But then they would never know they had a problem. And as much as they celebrated the use of time travel, they at least had ways to definitely access alternate timelines at any time they wanted. A retconned multiverse was gone unless they could deduce the exact criteria that sent John back the first time, which would be an impossible case on the full multiversal scale. 

Not to mention the fact that it would end up in a John-duplicate, and that level of ka instability was just deemed unsafe. There was too much potential for one to turn and have a war of retcons. 

And so John had to be used carefully – to tweak specific moments in ways that ensured he wouldn’t duplicate himself without a stable loop. The Time Lords were definitely the people for the job, but it meant their superweapon wasn’t invincible. John was, after all, just a human – and he could be damaged as such. In his current state, if someone managed to kill him, it would certainly be Just. The Gallifreyans had to keep him out of the direct line of fire. 

Furthermore, the Many-Angled Ones had quickly developed what was being called Schrödinger’s Strategy. It was difficult for the Gallifreyans to have John manifest in two locations at the same relative metatime, so the alliance began to make plans that depended on John’s presence. If he was not detected in a location, one mission would be sent. But if he was, another would be. In some cases there was a third or even fourth option that would trigger if the Gallifreyans did pull off a stable retcon loop. 

It was horrendously inefficient and ended up wasting a lot of resources, but it seemed to minimize the damage John did to the war effort. Not that anyone could know for sure. Whatever the Gallifreyans decided to retcon would stay retconned. Nobody knew if they were sticking to only small-scale edits, or if they got desperate and were willing to erase large moments. Not even the Gallifreyans would know that. 

This was probably why they weren’t using John’s power to its fullest. If they screwed something up, it was dangerous to them. Go back too far and the Class 1s would return and wipe the Gallifreyans from existence for daring to plant those tower rings. 

In the end, the Gallifreyans had a last-ditch trump card that could only be used in localized places unless they wanted to suffer severe and unpredictable consequences. 

They were also being attacked from eight different fronts. John had been immensely helpful to execute a pre-prepared plan against a mostly singular enemy. Not to come up with stuff on the fly against societies that were just as clever as they were. 

Granted, the Gallifreyans had time travel. But what did that really give them? Especially since time travel in universes could be shut off with enough technological know-how. 

This evened the playing field considerably. 

“John spotted in secondary port!” Scarcity shouted through the intercom – connecting to the rest of the fleet. She stood on the bridge of a tremendous Starcross Society ship, the lurking behemoth brimming with the light of Stars. It was far larger than any of the other ships in their fleet – though once couldn’t exactly call the geometric eldritch oddity that was the Many-Angled One a ship. 

“Jump to point 7-Z,” Scarcity continued. She had been fighting in this war for three days in her perceived time and she still couldn’t quite believe it. She hated everyone she was fighting alongside with a burning passion but she hated the Gallifreyans and their arrogance even more. She had been elated when she learned the Class 1 Civilizations were destroying themselves, bringing the multiverse closer to the proper existence, but the Gallifreyans had to go and ruin that feeling; replacing it with dread of a single overlord. 

An overlord that would have interfered enough to alter the way time worked in Starcross Society worlds. That had been more than enough to summon them from their isolation. 

Scarcity didn’t have to like it. She especially didn’t have to like working alongside Nanoha’s people. She’d buried those memories long ago. 

The fleet finally managed to jump to point 7-Z, one of the many universes of the Gallifreyan cluster. The first thing they did was force time travel to stop – resulting in the Time Lord infrastructure shattering. Those in transit died, those in the future were forgotten, and those in the past who traveled too far never arrived. It was brutal, but required. If the Time Lords were allowed free use of their element, the fight would be over before it began. 

The Starcross Society ship fired upon the Gallifreyan fleet in orbit, trying to punch through their defenses and gain a strong connection to the planet below. The Gallifreyan ships copied the exteriors of any solid-matter ships facing them and fought back with the same weapons. 

This did not work on the Many-Angled One. It took the shape of a square interlaced inside an icosahedron and barreled through the ships, reducing them to flat two-dimensional shapes that could not operate any further. The full TARDISes in the Gallifreyan fleet didn’t flatten, but they were forced into an emergency state that was easier to pick off. 

A TSAB and Combine ship worked together to punch a wormhole to the surface of the planet – which they threw a device into. The device removed the protective barrier around the planet, allowing the Planes of Oblivion to enter. 

The Planes of Oblivion were an unusual ‘society’, best likened to a hoard of demonic chaos energies. They had no ships, but they had access to a seemingly endless supply of brutal warriors in a highly specialized universe polymer-sphere designed to dial almost any universe in as many locations as was necessary to bring it to Oblivion. 

Demonic hordes poured out over the surface of the planet, laying it to waste. 

Scarcity grinned with satisfaction. Nanoha may have objected to this method of warfare, but it was the only one the Planes of Oblivion knew. Endless strife and destruction. They would rival the Beyonders with their brutality, were they allowed to continue. 

She checked the report of the battle – the Oblivion soldiers were laying waste to the target for this mission, a dimensional transmission node. The Class 1 War had ruined most natural Nexus universes completely, making the previous ease of traveling the multiverse a sudden difficulty. Only societies that had strong dimensional connections between them could move as they had before, and to move elsewhere, they needed Nexus universes of their own construction. The Time Lords had them. 

They were about to have one less. 

“Dimensional portal detected!” a human from the Void reported from their crystalline ship. 

“John?” Scarcity asked. 

“No retcon, only a semi-major ka surge.”

“Then what is it?”

“Unknown.”

They found out what it was a second later. A tremendous clock the size of moon appeared in the space around them. It was golden-laced and had numerous gears sticking out its sides. It glowed in such a way that it could be mistaken for a comet from a distance. 

Scarcity knew what it was – it was a time-enforcer. “Get some reality drills active!”

The Many-Angled One took the role, using its shape to emphasize the stability of the universe they were in. But it was pathetic compared to the power of the clock. Time began to flow slower for everything except the clock. Soon it would be too fast for them to defend against. 

Then the Living Tribunal appeared, arms crossed. Around him were several hundred Skaian users of Time. “Stop this distortion of time!”

The Time players moved in – mostly composed of versions of Aradia – forcing the time on the clock to stop accelerating. The clock decided to charge a weapon anyway, one to destroy these puny Skaians. 

The Living Tribunal punched his fist right through the center of the clock. It ceased to exist. 

At the same time, the dimensional transmission node fell, disrupting Gallifrey’s ability to navigate the multiverse.

At this point, the leader of an expedition might have said ‘good work team, let’s go home’. That’s certainly what Nanoha would have done. 

Scarcity didn’t. She made sure the Aradias were tying this up in a fixed-point paradox so the Gallifreyans couldn’t just clap their hands and undo the work. “That’s that. Everyone, back to the sidelines.” She spoke with distaste. 

She wanted to be out here fighting. Laying waste to the arrogant humanoids. 


~~~


I’ll just take a walk to clear my head, what could go wrong?

Eve was quickly realizing how absurd that thought had been. Everything could go wrong the moment she went outside. Most of all, the thing she was trying to get away from was shoved in her face out here. 

She had taken a few steps outside of Canterlot Castle and was assaulted by reporters, angry citizens, and worried people. 

She started out making a serious attempt to alleviate their fears. 

“What do you think of the war?”

“I think it’s a terrible thing that is, unfortunately, completely necessary.”

“What do we have to gain from engaging in this war?”

“We’ll protect ourselves from the ideas of time abuse and the collapse. Though, I will say we aren’t actually doing much in the current war. All we have to offer is the Living Tribunal and the Shaping Mechanism.”

“What did you do to get the Living Tribunal handed to us?”

“Nothing. The One Above All made that choice Himself.”

“Do you approve of the destruction of the D-Sphere?”

“No, I do not.”

“What are your personal feelings on the future of the multiverse?”

“Uh… I… I have a lot to think about at the present moment, the deep future isn’t something I’m pondering.”

“What should we do?”

“Live your lives as you always have. The dimensional tremors should not occur again.”

“What are your opinions of Princess Corona?”

Eve froze. She looked at the reporter who had asked the question with a hateful expression. He recoiled in mild fear, blinking from her sudden fire. 

Eve opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind – but she felt a tear run down her cheek. The sensation stopped her cold. She could no longer remember what she was going to say.

“Show’s over,” Monika said, appearing in front of Eve. “Everyone back off.”

“Monika, what are your intentions with th-”

“I said back off.”

All of them backed off. It wasn’t because they had a choice. 

“Monika… Fix their minds.”

“It was a temporary file adjustment,” Monika muttered, jump-cutting herself and Eve back into Canterlot Castle. “They’ll all be back to normal in a minute.”

“They’ll use this to slander you in the media.”

Monika made it pretty clear how much she cared about that by letting out a mocking laugh. 

Eve felt the need to lecture Monika on caring more about the opinions of others, but Flutterfree saved her the pain of that endeavor. The pegasus trotted up to Eve and embraced her. “I saw what was happening…”

Eve sighed. “Can’t even go outside anymore. War in here, war out there. War everywhere.”

“It is hard,” Flutterfree admitted. 

“At least with Skarn I felt like I was fighting an enemy,” Eve muttered. “Now I’m not even sure I am fighting. Things are exploding around me and everyone’s scared, but nothing’s actually attacked us.”

“I’d be thankful for that,” Monika commented, fidgeting with her ponytail. “Very lucky we weren’t caught in the crossfire.”

“I’d think one as Aware as you would be smarter than that,” a new voice said. 

Monika looked up with an annoyed expression. “Oh. Hello, Doctor.”

“Monika,” he said, clearly not pleased to be in her presence either. 

“What do you mean, ‘smarter than that’?” Flutterfree asked the Doctor. 

“I just find it astounding that you were successfully identified as ‘the Protagonist civilization’ by the Class 1s far before the war began, and not one decided to wipe you off the map just to be sure. Even my people are mostly ignoring you, reasoning that the Living Tribunal would continue fighting them regardless of your continued existence.” He leaned against a wall, expression darkened. “The Dark Tower is saving you.”

“That’s obvious,” Monika said, crossing her arms. “That’s why I’m here. Why else would I hang around?”

“A foil to Twilence,” the Doctor pointed out.

“The purposes are one and the same.”

“Again, you amaze me with how little you actually know.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing something useful? Like stopping your people from putting the multiverse into temporal slavery?”

The Doctor looked away, ashamed. “…Yes, I suppose I should be doing that.”

“Why aren’t you?” Eve asked.

“The methods I have to do so can all be undone,” the Doctor pointed out. “I can’t beat the retcon. And neither can you.”

“Nanoha seems to be doing fine,” Flutterfree pointed out.

“Nanoha hasn’t put the Time Lords into a corner yet. The moment they know they’re going to lose, they’ll rewrite everything. They may, on an intellectual level, understand that would mean killing their present selves in most cases, but they haven’t made the emotional connection yet. Time travel is so pedestrian to them, there’s no way it should be regulated.”

Flutterfree looked at the Doctor with hard – but sad – eyes. “…Why did you use it so much?”

“It was a fact of existence,” the Doctor said. “It’s outrageously prevalent… If I ignored it, so much would have been lost.”

“…Those lives lost through the altered timelines are just as important as the ones you saved,” Flutterfree pointed out. 

Eve put a hoof on Flutterfree. “That’s true. But…”

“I know,” Flutterfree said, shaking her head. “We can never see them. Never get to know them. As far as we’re concerned, there’s only one timeline… Even we opted to just not think about it. Because nothing could be done…”

Monika put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “Look, time travel isn’t the only issue, there’s things like me, Hells, pornos, etcetera. The only way to keep going with your sanity is to not think about it.”

“…Rick at least got something right,” the Doctor muttered. “You can’t think about everything. It’s too much of a burden. Too many variables.”

“Nobody has the right to make the decision,” Eve echoed. 

Flutterfree looked up. “Well, we’re being asked to. We don’t have the minds to work through it. We can’t weigh out every little detail. So we’re just going to have to go with our guts.”

“Horribly unreliable,” the Doctor muttered.

“What else are we going to do?”

All four of them fell silent. 

After a while the Doctor sighed. “I’m going to think up ways to defeat John. There has to be something. Maybe Roxy is finally willing to be cooperative.”

“Good luck,” Eve told him. 

The Doctor walked away, hunched slightly. 

“When did everything get so depressing?” the Relations Overhead asked.


~~~


What a depressing memory.

Corona was looking at an old photograph – back in the early days of multiversal exploration, before Merodi Universalis was even a thing, she had gotten most of her friends together outside Canterlot High. Both Twilights, both Rarities, both Pinkies, both Spikes, both Trixies, Nova, Sugarcoat… 

Some of these people were dead. Most of the rest of them were currently in Merodi Universalis, fighting against her. 

A close-knit group of friends from so long ago, now at war. 

…They hadn’t actually fought yet. But I had told her not to get hopeful. There was no way this story was going to resolve without them fighting each other in one way or another. 

She tried her best to ignore what I had said. Her choice. 

She tucked the photograph back in her battle-dress. She caught sight of the necklace that held Sai – the Artificial Intelligence had been quiet and acting weird lately. She should probably have her looked at. Once she found time. 

As it was, all Corona’s time was occupied. While the war against Gallifrey went on, they were building up their forces. Preparing for a time when they could initiate the collapse. Their benefactors were Empress Twilight’s Void, but that was not where they were stationed. 

Instead, they were at Poe’s Raven Hotel, using the hidden universe to its fullest potential. The structure usually used for comfort and rest had been repurposed to serve as a military base, mostly through the actions of Commander-In-Chief Minna. The pale woman had insisted they use ranks for the military to keep things organized from the get-go even though there wasn’t any actual fighting. 

Minna had placed military-grade scanning stations on every wall, set advanced replicator terminals at opportune places around the room, and had ensured everyone knew exactly what room was theirs and which rooms were for storage. 

Poe had to keep making new rooms. He claimed it annoyed him, but Corona knew he was elated to have so many people around. 

Currently, the forces at the Raven Hotel consisted only of the Merodi Universalis defectors and the few Void personnel who could be spared from the war against Gallifrey. This small group included Mage Rarity, a unicorn who had never left Corona’s side since they had arrived. 

Conversely, Lady Rarity had acted in a similar fashion. Corona always had a double Rarity tag-team following her. She occasionally thought one of them said something, when it was really the other, but that wasn’t a big deal – the big deal was that they never seemed to agree on much of anything. 

“Blumiere should get to work immediately,” Mage Rarity was saying. “Time will be of the essence.”

“He will be a shining beacon for them to find us,” Lady Rarity countered. “The navigation networks haven’t been sufficiently destroyed yet.”

“If it was a beacon, the navigation networks wouldn’t matter.”

“You understand my point.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“The point is it draws unwanted attention!”

“In a time where we will be hidden by a war. If we act later, we’ll be a prime target.”

Corona glanced at Blumiere, letting the two pony voices drift into the background of her perception. “What do you think?”

“I think it doesn’t matter, in the end,” Blumiere pointed out. “I was just talking with Twilence…”

Corona sucked in a deep breath. “Right… right…” She checked a band on her wrist – they were part of the Narrative right now. “Think she’s actually keeping the Pinkies from seeing us?”

Blumiere shrugged. “Only partially, I’m told.”

“…Right.” She sighed. “…So, if you were given complete control of when you start working with the Prognostici, what would you do?”

“I’d start… when I felt the urge to.”

“See, I don’t think that’s going to fly with the horses back there.”

Blumiere looked at them in bemusement. “Why do you act like they’re in charge? You’re the spirit of this endeavor.”

Corona didn’t try to deny it, but she also didn’t try to hide her contempt. “Didn’t want to be.”

“The best leaders are those who have power thrust upon them,” Blumiere pointed out. “Those who seek it…”

Corona nodded. “Are you asking me to tell you what to do?”

“Not at all. I’m simply saying that I will start when you order – or when I feel like it. Really, whenever I start will be the opportune moment.”

Corona put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “In that case, you have complete freedom to choose, but be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

Blumiere adjusted his hat. “I will. …And Corona?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for releasing me.”

Corona smiled awkwardly. “…You’re welcome.”

“I hope neither of us live to regret it.”

Corona looked at him with understanding eyes. She nodded and turned back to the Rarities – who had stopped arguing after noticing Corona was dealing with it herself, and had instead shifted to conversation about the strength of military forces.

“We’re miniscule,” Lady Rarity pointed out. “I doubt there will be another mutual destruction conclusion to this era of the war. Merodi Universalis itself, united, would only be a mid-tier combatant. We’re just an offshoot. And don’t pretend like your Void forces aren’t about to be decimated.”

Mage Rarity smiled. “I could explain the plan about that – but I think I’ll let my old friend do it instead.”

I teleported in front of her the moment she finished. “Mhm. We will not be the only ones seeking collapse, Lady Rarity.” I held up one of the pages of my notebook to her, letting her grab it in her magic. It showed a diagram of a spiral with several symbols that represented multiversal nations. “This war is a great endless cyclone – one that starts by unleashing lightning with the most power, but over time dies out. Eventually, the energy binding the storm together dissipates. At this point someone will be able to make a Tower Ring and not instantly be found. And the conflict will be over.”

“How do- oh.” Lady Rarity figured it out. 

I nodded. “The higher powers fall over time. I do not see Gallifrey winning. They are not masters of ka. There are too many factors working against them. Not that I have any particular idea how they’re going to be taken care of, or what it will cost. After that, who knows how many of the High Class-2 societies will have fallen? My pen says several. And we will be at the collapse with allies we don’t even know about yet.”

“Allies who do more than us.”

I nodded slowly. “Perhaps your fleets don’t mean much. But your heroes, they do mean a lot.” I looked at Corona. “You and Eve are already being romanticized heavily. You are the faces of the causes. Your actions – as an individual and as a nation – are immensely important.”

“…Is that the solution?” Corona asked.

I sighed. “The question you want answered is not one I can answer for you, Corona. The answer may not even matter in the end.”

Corona nodded slowly. “Guess I’m just going to have to come to terms with that.”

“…You!?” Sai beeped, starting to laugh.

Corona looked down at the necklace. “I need to get her checked out. Don’t suppose Pidge’s made it yet?”

“No,” Lady Rarity said. “Our… source hasn’t had the opportunity. There are others available.”

“I know the perfect person to look at her!” Mage Rarity said, suddenly smiling – something that seemed a little out of place for her. She held up one of her front hooves, holding out… nothing. 

Corona blinked. “…What?”

“Mite,” a synthetic voice came from her hoof, seemingly from no source.

I gasped. “Oh. My. Tower. Mite! It’s so good to see you – Rarity, how did you keep him hidden?”

“Carefully,” Mite responded.

Mage Rarity rolled her eyes. “Just didn’t make a big deal about it. Works wonders.”

“…Explain?” Corona asked.

“Mite was one of the members of my team,” I said. “He’s a nanomachine so small you can’t see, gifted with some odd properties by his local Discord. He’s great at interfacing with technology – and speaking in one word sentences.”

“Oh. Well, if you trust him, he can check out Sai.”

“Amiga, he’s already checking me out,” Sai reported. “Rawr.”

“Ocelot,” Mite beeped. 

“…Que?”

“Precisely.”

Corona let herself smile. At least not all the antics were gone from her life. If those hadn’t come with her… she probably would have gone mad. 


~~~


“Report!” O’Neill blurted.

Squeaky raised an eyebrow and glanced at Yellow Diamond. “We gave you a report ten minutes ago.”

“I don’t care, report again! Give us something to do. It’s better than sitting on our asses!”

“We’re all sitting down,” Yellow Diamond pointed out. 

O’Neill got up and started pacing. 

“Look, O’Neill,” Squeaky placed her hooves together in front of her snout and furrowed her brow. “Our forces are already in the best defensive positions possible. There’s no point in launching an offense – our Aradias are already working.”

“Less and less all the time,” O’Neill muttered.

“Do you want to reinstate militaristic time travel?” 

O’Neill didn’t respond. 

“Look, the Aradias of Celestia City have found ways to duplicate themselves without erasure and their numbers should be back up soon.”

“Her effectiveness has lowered,” Yellow Diamond pointed out. 

“She’s minimizing death.”

Yellow Diamond grunted, unable to understand the whole devotion to life. “Causes are better.”

“And look what Red Diamond did,” O’Neill muttered under his breath.

Yellow Diamond smashed her fist into the table, destroying it. “She is clearly flawed!”

“What I don’t get is why you don’t take your private ship and hunt her down right now.”

“It would be foolish and ineffective,” Yellow Diamond seethed. 

“Not much of a change from right now,” he said, holding out his hand in a mock gesture even he wasn’t sure meant anything. “We’re all just playing musical chairs until we yell at each other enough to shut up.”

Squeaky sighed. “It’s a difficult time. But we have to stand together.”

“Already failed at that, Squeaky,” O’Neill sighed. “…I wonder what she saw in that future of hers.”

“Probably nothing.”

“Then why did she go?”

Squeaky narrowed her eyes. “Remember where she came from. She had that entire place destroyed with everyone inside. Everything. She’s willing and has good reason to.”

“And the others have none!” Yellow Diamond blurted. “Red was a Gem, one of us! And Rosalina was one of your ‘environmental’ types!”

“Rosalina believes in cycles,” O’Neill said, looking into the distance. “Almost religiously. Creation and rebirth…”

“And Red…” Squeaky looked at Yellow Diamond with confused eyes. “Let’s be honest, none of us really understood her.”

Yellow Diamond had nothing to say to this. 

“…Can we get to the report?” O’Neill asked.

“Living Tribunal left the Shaping Mechanism again. Aradias deploying. Defenses holding,” Squeaky droned. “Happy?”

“Nope, but that’ll have to do.” He sat down in his chair. “…I want to go fishing.”

“I think we’d all like to go fishing rather than deal with this.”

Yellow Diamond, for once, didn’t think that was stupid. 


~~~


As soon as the story looked to her, Pinkie appeared in front of Monika. “I need a ka-scramble.”

Monika looked up from the paperwork Eve was having her fill out to become an ‘official advisor’. “What?”

“Starbeat’s a bit busy with civil war and I need to do a thing without the Aware people knowing about it. Especially Twilence.”

“Can’t guarantee protection from her,” Monika said, pointing her finger at Pinkie and adjusting reality. “But there you go, feel free to do whatever you want for the next scene.”

“Thanks.” Pinkie saluted, bouncing back through her powers to a small, dark room. In a series of quick jumps that really pushed her current interpretation of ‘the rules’, she filled it with four other people: Jotaro, Pidge, Nova, and Vriska. 

“…Okay, everyone including Pidge but not Flutterfree…” Nova said, scratching her chin. “Pinkie, I already don’t like this.”

Pinkie laughed nervously. “Yeah. Yeah and you’re about to like it a lot less.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I’m sure all of you have as well. We thought, at first, that we wouldn’t be able to do anything. That we were tiny little insignificant pawns in this war. The best we could do was give John, or something, to the fight. 

“I don’t believe that anymore. I believe that we can make a difference – on an individual level. So I’ve had to work my way through that. I’ve had to put away all the cakes, parties, and smiles for a bit and make a decision.”

She looked at the past words – all the way back to the sixth chapter. “I was so naïve back then. I thought I was deciding if I would experience death and hardship all around me. I thought I was deciding if I was willing to be part of an adventure. But that decision? …I really was juggling lives in my hooves that day. I was placing myself here. There was no way I could have known that… Could have known half the things…

“And I knew things, I knew more about what was out there than any of us! And it stayed that way for a long time! I made powerful, hard, important decisions based on that. I put on the good ol’ massacre dress and sawed people in half based on it! I became a monster sometimes!” She probably would have been crying if she could. She wasn’t sure. “You think I’d be the most able to work against the system, to mitigate the damage ka brings… but I fall into it just like everyone else. The only difference is that I know how much of a prisoner I am. I know what a cruel master it is.”

Everyone was silent. 

Pinkie shook her head, trying to keep her mane poofed up. She smiled. “…I’m going to go to Corona. I’ve gotten in contact with one of her people here. I want you to come with me.”

There was silence for a few seconds. 

Nova let out a deep sigh first. “Pinkie… You’re our Captain. You’re our leader. You’re our friend.” She smiled warmly and put a hoof on Pinkie’s – more for her benefit than for the senseless earth pony’s. “I trust you. If you think this is what needs to be done… I’ll believe in you.”

Vriska shrugged. “Sure. What she said.”

Pidge snorted. “You have a way with words.”

“What? Oh, you want something more?” Vriska cleared her throat. “Pinkamena Diane Pie, if I have learned one thing in my time on your team, it’s that you are the leader for a reason. Even when you weren’t.”

Pinkie smiled brightly. “…It means a lot to hear you say that Vriska.”

“Wait, don-”

Pinkie pulled her into a hug. Vriska chuckled. “Soft pink ponies, yeesh…”

“What about Flutterfree?” Nova asked.

“I’m not taking her from Eve,” Pinkie said. “Nor Rev. She’ll be upset… But she’ll understand.”

“How can you be so sure?” Jotaro asked. 

“Becau-” Pinkie stopped herself, sensing something bitter in Jotaro’s voice. “Jotaro, you don’t agree?”

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro stood up and pulled his hat over his eyes. He took a step away.

“Jotaro, you don’t just get to storm off!” Nova blurted. 

“I do what I want,” Jotaro commented, not slowing his pace. 

“Jotaro, don’t be li-” Pidge began.

Pinkie shook her head. “Jotaro, if you don’t want to come, don’t. I’m not going to make you. I was just offering.”

“I know that,” Jotaro said.

“Jotaro, d-”

“Star Platinum: the World.” Never before had the words been spoken in such a somber tone. 

Jotaro was gone. 

“…That’s not going to be our goodbye,” Pinkie muttered through gritted teeth.

Pidge adjusted her glasses and pulled out her laptop. “I’ll find him. And try to keep him from spilling the beans. You just get things ready.”

“He’s not going to do that,” Nova asserted.

“He’s angry enough he might change his own mind,” Vriska pointed out. 

Pinkie sighed, shaking her head. “…Pidge, I leave him to you. Nova, Vriska, bodyguard me in case there’s trouble. …If only party cannons could shoot across the multiverse, that’d be nice. But I already used up all my good girl points.”

“The Rules operate on a points system now?” Vriska asked.

“Yep. And they never will again. …For me. Unless they do.” Pinkie allowed herself to smile mischievously. 

Vriska groaned. 


~~~


Rev looked outside the windows of the church at the streets of Ponyville. A few days ago they had been mostly abandoned because everyone was panicked about recent events. 

Now?

Now they were just as busy as they always were. It was true that people walked around with more nervous expressions than normal, but they were not fearing for their lives in the immediate future. 

Rev knew exactly why. The tremors caused by the Class 1 war had ended. Since the Gallifreyan war had started, Merodi Universalis hadn’t felt anything. Virtually all the battles had been fought in the E-Sphere, and the Merodi armies weren’t even the ones fighting. The illusion of distance mixed together with the people slowly beginning to realize they had Plot Armor. 

They knew that the reality anchor machines would not have withstood any semi-direct attacks from higher civilizations. The crossfire should have done much more damage. But only a few outer worlds had suffered, and there had been nothing since.

The people chose not to think about the result of the war likely killing them all. Even Rev’s own congregation had been like that for the most part. 

She really wasn’t sure what to feel about that. 

She wasn’t sure what to feel about a lot of things lately. 

“Is the world ending already?” 

Rev glanced behind herself to see the newest member of the church – the Twilight known as Rina. She was a dark-coated version with soft, blue eyes. She currently wore a white outfit that covered her wings discreetly, and a simple cross necklace hung from her neck. 

“Curb your enthusiasm,” Rev said with a sad smile. “We’ve still got time.”

Rina nodded slowly, blinking. “How’s the bunker coming?”

“As well as it can,” Rev admitted. “I’ve enchanted the basement with the best magic spells I know and just got the reality anchors set up down there.”

“…Government issue?”

“Yep. Flutterfree pulled some strings. …Which is to say we just walked up to Eve and asked.”

Rina nodded slowly. She let out a sigh. “I finally get here and everything’s about to end…”

Rev put a hoof on Rina’s shoulder. “Don’t let that lessen your progress. The fact that you’re here at all is something to behold. You should be proud of yourself.”

Rina looked at her necklace. “It wasn’t me who dragged me here.”

Rev chuckled. “You still had to say yes. He doesn’t force people to come to Him.”

There was a potent silence for a few seconds.

“Thank you,” Rina said. “I know I’ve said it a lot, but…”

Rev smiled. “You can thank me as much as you want – but all I did was take you in. He deserves more thanks than I do.”

Rina nodded. “Do you think He will protect us if…”

“…I can’t make that deduction,” Rev said, all pleasantness draining from her face. “I know that whatever happens will be His will.”

“I understand leaving me in the dark, but you?”

“I’m in a position of power and fame,” Rev said – spitting out the last word with more than a little venom. “I have material things. I don’t think I’m allowed to know.”

“Is that God or the Tower stopping you?”

Rev let out a bitter laugh. “I wish I knew. Because if it was the former I’d at least be happy about it.”

“Happy…” Rina said, looking upward with a wistful expression. 


~~~


Corona had taken it upon herself to get to know all the major people who had allied with her. She’d already taken care of Blumiere, the Void, myself, Rosalina, and Minna… but there was one currently here she not only didn’t know that well, but wasn’t even sure how to approach. 

The individual in question was the mysterious and elegant Red Diamond, towering over everyone else so much that she couldn’t fit in the Raven Hotel’s lobby. She and the Gems she had taken from the Vein had set up ‘lodgings’ not in the Raven Hotel’s many rooms, but within their ships, drifting outside in the nothingness the universe had to offer. 

Corona was flying through the nothingness, using magic to propel herself as she approached Red Diamond’s personal craft. Most Gem ships were shaped like body parts – and when that wasn’t the case, they liked simple geometric shapes. Red Diamond’s was neither of those things; instead it was a complex mesh of gear-like shapes that somewhat resembled a flower when put together. 

Corona flapped her wings and flew right to it. She supposed she could teleport, but she didn’t exactly want to catch Red Diamond off-guard right now. 

Report from the war, Raging Sights messaged Corona’s mind. 

Anything important?

Planes of Oblivion are falling due to Gallifrey’s focus on them. They’re effectively out of the game. The twisted leylines left over from the Magic High Commission are failing, which is going to let Gallifrey’s time ripples further into the Q-Sphere. Otherwise, heavy losses on both sides. 

“That’s one of ours down, and one of theirs…” Corona mused aloud. 

Raging Sights had no further thoughts on the matter. Corona didn’t mind, she was more than a little tired of the political game already. 

I’m going to end up working with people I really don’t like…

She arrived at the front of Red Diamond’s ship and signaled with both her hands and her magic. Red Diamond teleported Corona right into the Diamond’s personal chambers. Unlike her ‘sisters’, who seemed to prefer empty but elegant places to spend their time, Red Diamond’s was filled with rare relics, pieces of literature, and a large number of trinkets. 

The Diamond smiled at Corona. Corona wasn’t sure why she found it unsettling.

“What brings you here?” 

“Just checking around with everyone,” Corona answered. “How are your troops doing?”

“They are loyal to me. I have made certain of it. Yes, it involved methods you likely wouldn’t approve of, but spare me the ethical lecture.” She didn’t say it dismissively or arrogantly, but rather with a tired voice, that of a woman with a heavy burden.

Corona nodded. “I won’t. I doubt that’ll be the worst thing we do anyway. …On either side.”

Red Diamond nodded. “You want to know why I came?”

Way to cut to the chase… “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

Red Diamond pointed to her body. “I was created to be a Diamond of the multiverse. Not necessarily one who understood, or one who controlled, but one who was. I feel it as a part of me. Sometimes this connection lets me see things that are to come, or to get feelings about the way events are flowing. But above all, it lets me feel what the multiverse feels.”

“Oh…” Corona said, grimacing.

“I am in great pain,” Red Diamond said, giving no indication of it in her voice. “Every scar or hole that forms… It embeds itself in my senses. I can feel what we’re doing to everything. How wrong it is.” She looked down at her hands. “Preservation doesn’t heal the multiverse. The scars remain. The collapse…”

“Will hurt beyond anything else.”

“But when it’s over… all will be new,” Red Diamond said with a soft smile. “I’m playing the role of doctor, you could say.”

Corona forced herself to smile back. “Glad to have you on board. Are you sure you’ll be able to take it though? When it happens?”

“Does it matter if I can?”

Corona blinked. “…No. I guess not.”

Red Diamond nodded. “We’ve all thought about this, Corona. Shouldn’t the time for thought and debate be behind us? What of the time for action?”

“Soon. Very soon. But not yet.”

“I will be waiting.”

Corona nodded – and she was teleported out of the ship without asking.

She blinked. She still didn’t feel like she knew Red Diamond all that well. 

Incoming message, Raging Sights announced. We’ve just received word directly from the Rebellious Star that the Starcross Society is devoted to our cause. They want to send people over. Your opinion on the matter is requested.

“Got it.” Corona teleported away – thoughts of Red Diamond replaced with the discomfort of working with the Starcross Society.


~~~


Three separate times, Jotaro had considered turning Pinkie in. 

Each time, he’d pushed the thought to the side. He couldn’t do that to her – to them. He had spent too much of his life with them. Saved all their lives – been saved – so often he couldn’t even count it now. 

He had been on Pinkie’s team for more than half his life. That was a lot, considering he was considerably older than any natural human could ever have been. 

He’d seen too much with them to throw them aside like that. 

They weren’t the villains. But he wasn’t going to be that kind of hero. The hero that ended other heroes…

Existence needed heroes. It always did, and always would. If there were nothing to make them, what would become of everything? 

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand why Pinkie and so many others had chosen the other side. He knew the horrors just as well as the heroisms. He wasn’t much of a man for math, but he knew how many suffered every day. But it was not worth it. 

It couldn’t be, right?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a tremor – a large one. Something interdimensional had tried to tear through the Hub. The Reality Anchors had held, but it was concerning enough to garner a few screams. A troop of Lilies ran out of Jotaro’s sight into a ‘bunker’ shop, supposedly equipped with higher-quality reality anchors. They weren’t, of course, it was an illegal scam nobody had time to clean up at the moment. 

Jotaro looked around, face stern. Perhaps a Q-Sphere leyline had just fallen, and they’d felt the shockwave. He couldn’t think of anything else the Gallifreyans would be doing in the Q-Sphere that would require that much use of power. 

He suddenly felt the need to summon Star Platinum, find Rassilon, and give him more punches than anyone else had been given. 

He actually humored the idea for a moment – he could find Jove and they could fist-rewrite reality all the way to Gallifrey’s head.

Until John showed up and retconned the entire thing.

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro muttered, pulling down his hat. He flipped out his dimensional device and dialed home – Earth Stand. 

He stepped out into the streets of Morioh, face turned toward the yellow sky: a peculiarity of the town that made it stand out from virtually every other settlement in any world. He walked to his house, which should have only been a block away. 

It wasn’t. He stopped at where it should have been and only saw a simple brick house with smoke coming off of it. 

Nani…?

“Jotaro!” Pidge shouted, jumping out of a nearby portal. “Jo-”

“Back off,” Jotaro said, glaring at her. 

“Jotaro you n-”

Jotaro froze time and ran through the streets of Morioh. No doubt Pidge would be able to trace him, but it would deter her. He wasn’t going to be dragged back so the others could try to persuade him. He was better than that. 

He stopped on yet another street of Morioh he didn’t recognize. 

Why can’t I recognize any of this? I’ve lived here most of my life! I know every street!

“…Jotaro?”

It wasn’t Pidge. It was an older man who’d lost most of his hair and wore a black jacket with a peace sign on it. 

“Yes?” Jotaro asked. “Do I know you?”

“…It’s me. Josuke. Josuke Higashikata.”

Jotaro blinked. “Wh…”

Before he could process this, he heard a shrill wail of despair. He and ‘Josuke’ turned around to see an older woman pointing a haunted finger at Jotaro. 

Jotaro didn’t have to wonder who this was. This was Marina. This was his wife. Far, far older than she should have looked. 

“You’re supposed to be dead!” she shouted. “Why can’t you ever stay that way!?”

Jotaro stared right at her, the stern expression he usually kept plastered on his face breaking. He couldn’t speak, only think ‘no’ in his mind.

“Got nothing to say? Have you become one of those Stands of yours!? Am I going to lose someone else to your adventures?” Tears were rolling down her face. 

“Marin-” Josuke began.

“SHUT UP!” Marina blurted. “GO BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!”

Jotaro gulped. He wanted to say something – but he knew this wasn’t his Marina. This was the Marina who would have lived had Eve never come. 

But this was the Marina who existed here… In his home…

He saw it now. Morioh had no ponies in it. It had no interdimensional technology. This world had no idea there was a multiverse. The timeline had been rewritten. 

He clenched his fist. He had to fix this. He…

…Would have to kill everyone here to do that. 

No, it was his wife, his family. It would be worth it. He didn’t care. 

Marina was staring at him, enraged, broken, unable to say anything.

“I’ll fix this,” Jotaro promised.

“Every time you tried to fix something someone died!”

“Maybe I needed some damn support!” 

“You got plenty of it!” 

“Marina, I-”

Jolyne popped out of a portal Pidge made, punching Marina across the face and knocking her out. “Sorry… …Mom!?”

“I said I’d explain later,” Pidge muttered, walking up to Jotaro. “You’re welcome.”

Josuke blinked. “Nani!?”

Jolyne’s jaw dropped. “Josuke? When did you get so… old!?”

“…When did you get young, Irene?”

Jolyne binked in confusion. “…Irene? …Pidge, explanations?”

Pidge cleared her throat. “The Gallifrey attack on the Magic High Commission’s remnant leyline took some casualties. There was a general ripple of temporal erasure sent through the multiverse, wiping clean the temporal slate of multiversal contact. It’s like what Jenny did before our time… except much, much more thorough and effective.”

“How do we undo it?” Jotaro demanded.

“Th-that’s the problem,” Pidge said, gulping. “It’s worse than that. There wasn’t a single event changed. The timeline buffer was reset. The timeline where Earth Stand becomes part of Merodi Universalis the way it did before… doesn’t exist anymore. We’d have to recreate the entire timeline from scratch to get it back – and there are too many universes involved for us to do that. …I don’t think any civilization left standing has the capability to do that.”

Jotaro took a step toward Pidge, face shrouded.

“O-of course John could still access it!” Pidge said, scrambling over her words. “Uh, all we have to do is get him out of Gallifreyan control a-”

Jotaro punched a hole in the concrete inches from Pidge. 

“…Who did it get?” Jolyne asked, hand to her mouth. 

Pidge frowned. “Anyone who was on Earth Stand a few minutes ago when the switch happened.”

Jolyne winced. Her own husband had been here, and a few of her children. “At… At least Job and Josuke are fine…” 

The older Josuke nervously shifted his eyes at the mention of his name, but said nothing. 

“Nani… why?” Jotaro asked. “Why the hell!?”

“U-” Pidge began.

“I’ll tell you why!” Jotaro shouted. “I’ll tell you why it’s taken Marina away from me! It wanted to make a goddamm point!”

Everyone took a step away from him. 

“You can hear it, can’t you? That Tower mockingly driving its ‘ideas’ into our minds. Demanding our response. We can’t just be sure in our lives, because one moment some random act of chance can just take it away!”

“Dad, stop!” Jolyne shouted. “Not all of it is gone!”

“But it could be!” Jotaro roared. “The Tower could destroy our Plot Armor and the Time Lords could erase everything! We could become an example. A point. People shouldn’t be points!”

“Jotaro, this isn’t you,” Pidge said, worry in her eyes. 

“You should be elated,” Jotaro muttered. “Because we’re going to Pinkie now.”

Jolyne blinked. “Huh?”

Jotaro grabbed Pidge and Jolyne unceremoniously with Star Platinum, dragging them through a portal before either of them could get a word in edgewise.

They left Josuke the elder standing there, unable to process what he’d just witnessed. 


~~~


Flutterfree sat herself down across from Rina, interrupting her lunch. The Twilight blinked in surprise. “Uh… Hi.” 

“How are you doing, Rina?” Flutterfree asked, ordering her ‘usual’ from the waitress with a wing gesture. 

Rina snorted. “Concerned?”

“Rina…”

Rina realized she’d done something wrong. “S-sorry.”

“It’s okay. This is all new to you. …Are the pills helping?” She spoke with a hushed tone, to not draw attention.

Rina’s eyes shot to one of her pockets where a small capsule of pills rested, away from everyone’s prying gaze. “I think so,” she said abruptly. 

“Rina, you don’t have to be afraid of me – or anyone else who’s trying to help you.”

“I know. That’s why I came here.” She levitated her cross necklace in front of her eyes, studying it closely. “…I knew I would be taken in…”

Flutterfree smiled warmly. “Then let us.”

“I’ve already let you give me those pills, give me clothes… I kinda just want to be me for a bit.”

Flutterfree raised an eyebrow. 

Rina twitched. “You know what I fucking mean.”

“I do. You’re also angry. What are you angry at?”

Rina blinked. “You know, I never really ask that question. It’s just… anger. I want to lash out. But I also want to be like you.” She bit her lip. “It’s a conflict”

Flutterfree cleared her throat. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” 

“Is there one of those for everything?!”

“Most things,” Flutterfree admitted. “The point is, you’re not alone. Everyone has that conflict inside them.”

“…Am I allowed to ‘boast’ that I have it stronger than most others?”

“You’re allowed to do whatever you want without eternal suffering given to you. You still have to ask if it’s good or right. Pray about it.”

Rina nodded. “…Thanks. …That’s what I should say, right?”

Flutterfree smiled sadly. “There was a time I thought that was required. But don’t thank someone if you’re not actually thankful. That prompts resentment. Don’t apologize for things you aren’t actually sorry for either. In some ways, I’m still learning that lesson.” 

“Gah, it’s more complicated than I thought it would be!”

“Do you regret coming here?”

She looked at her necklace again. “No. No I don’t. I feel… changed, here. I don’t think that’s just the pills.”

“I’m glad to hear that. And I’m glad to say that I’ll be your friend.”

“Friends…” Rina said her face becoming a mixture of pleasant and sorrowful emotions. 

“…Wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe later,” Rina said. “I would actually like to enjoy my food for once.”

“Glad I c-” Lolo activated on its own; flashing around the diner strong enough to be visible by everyone. Flutterfree’s eyes flashed a brilliant purple and her hair stood on end. The patrons turned to stare at her. 

Flutterfree blinked, red eyes flashing. “I… I have to go.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I…” Flutterfree blinked. “I have no idea… But I know I have to go.” She galloped off, leaving Rina confused. 

Standing just around a corner, shrouded in shadow, a man pulled out a dark sphere. 

“Now why did you do that…?” Flagg asked Black Thirteen.

The artifact didn’t answer. 


~~~


Pinkie’s shot bolt upright. “Aaaaaand they know where we are now. Let’s hope Monika’s not looking…” 

“We have to go without him, then?” Nova asked. 

“Well, no, he’s coming, but we need to warm up the ship.” 

Pinkie, Nova, and Vriska were standing on the hangar in one of Equis Cosmic’s space stations, in a place reserved for Expeditions Division operations. The ship in question was the Atlas, a relatively small but state-of-the-art ship constructed by the Research Divison’s finest. It was a light blue ovoid with a single engine in the back. The ship never touched the ground, and a loose ring of glass levitated around it. The Atlas was significantly larger than a simple Skiff, about the size of a train car when the outer ring wasn’t considered.  

“Warm up what?” Vriska shouted from inside the Atlas. She pressed a button and the Atlas was ready to jump to the next universe. 

“Ah. Right. Modern technology is fast.” Pinkie rubbed the back of her head. “Just lock the teleporters on us. We need to chop chop this one. Like a roadrunner.”

Nova lit her horn, teleporting herself into the Atlas, leaving Pinkie alone on the outside. 

Pinkie took in a deep breath. Come on Jotaro… she pulled a watch out of her mane and checked the time. 

Tick.

She was getting antsy. She knew they were being watched, and that meant something was going to happen. Jotaro wasn’t going to arrive with Pidge and Jolyne uneventfully. They wouldn’t just be able to get out. The timing was all wrong for that. 

How she hoped today was a moment of Subverting Expectations. 

Jotaro jumped out of a portal, dragging Jolyne and Pidge with him. 

“Let’s g-”

Nova teleported him, Pidge, and Jolyne into the ship. 

“Nani!?” Jolyne blurted. “What the fuck is going on!?”

“A seamless escape!” Pinkie blurted, bouncing onto the hull of the Atlas. “And away we g-”

“…Pinkie?” 

Pinkie lowered her hoof. She pointed her face at the voice, grimacing. “…Hi.”

“Pinkie, what’s going on?” Flutterfree asked. Pinkie could sense Lolo active around her, already spreading around the room. 

“So that was what you detected… why would Black Thirteen want you here?”

“Pinkie you’re avoiding my question,” Flutterfree said, no small amount of venom in her voice. 

Pinkie sighed. “We’re…” She shook her head – she couldn’t lie to Flutterfree. “We’re going to join Corona.”

Flutterfree had apparently deduced this already, because her expression hardly shifted. “Okay…”

“Do you want to know why?”

“I think I know why,” Flutterfree said. “I’ve heard so many arguments from both sides over the last few days. I don’t need to hear yours. Its something like Twilence’s, isn’t it?”

Pinkie held up her hoof and tilted it back and forth. “Sorta?”

“Then I can understand that just fine. …I want to know why you didn’t come to me.”

“You wouldn’t want to come.”

“Pinkie, you’re the Captain. I’d follow you anywhere.” Flutterfree forced a smile. “All you have to do is ask.”

Pinkie bit her lip. “I… I knew that.”

“Then why didn’t you ask?”

“Because I couldn’t take you away. It would hurt you more than anyone else. It would take you away from your home. It would take you away from your church. It would take you away from Eve! Those are more important than us!”

“Are they?” Flutterfree asked. 

Pinkie put a hoof to her head. “Flutterfree…”

“You’ve been my family, Pinkie. I… I don’t care if I don’t agree with what we’re doing, I didn’t always agree with the missions we were on. But we did them together.”

“I shouldn’t make your choice for you! Especially not if you know what you want to do!”

Flutterfree closed her eyes for a moment, collecting herself. “Pinkie. …Captain. I…”

“Flutterfree, stop,” Nova said, teleporting next to Pinkie. “You shouldn’t do this.”

Flutterfree blinked. “Wh-”

“You have to do what you think is right. Not what you think will be best for your friends.” Nova’s expression softened. “You shouldn’t throw away your faith for us.”

Flutterfree’s expression became fearful. “I… I wouldn’t be…”

“You would. You’d be siding with us because of loyalty to us. Not because it’s right. Not because you think it’s right. And as Rev told me so many times, that’s what’s really important. Isn’t it?”

Flutterfree looked at Nova. “You… You…” She sagged her head in defeat. “You’re right.”

“I know.”

“…I don’t want to lose you…”

“We’re still your friends!” Pinkie said. 

“Can ponies on opposite sides of a war be friends?”

“Yes!” Vriska called from inside the Atlas. “Take it from me, I had a lot of friends like that.”

Flutterfree let out a soft laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Because I’m the best spiderbitch around, that’s why.”

Pinkie appeared next to Flutterfree, smiling sadly. “…We have to go. The other Pinkies see us.”

“If I do the right thing… I’ll try to stop you.”

“You know you couldn’t. Couldn’t even slow us down. So you don’t have to.”

Flutterfree smiled. “…Thank you.”

Pinkie hugged her. “Thank you for being… the strongest of all of us. You’ve been through so much… I’m sorry. I have to put you through more.”

Flutterfree hugged her back. “…Thank you for… for everything. For being you. For being so unique.”

Pinkie placed a hoof on Flutterfree so she would actually feel a response to the touch. “...Heheh…”

“This… this is horrible.”

“I know. But I think it has to happen.”

“Do you think we’ll ever get the team back together?”

“I hope so. …But I don’t like our chances.”

“I promise to try to survive if you will.”

Pinkie laughed. “Flutters, you can’t kill suction cup pony.”

Flutterfree let out a delighted laugh. 

And then Star Platinum stopped time. The next thing Flutterfree knew, she was alone – the Atlas was gone. 

…She should probably report what had happened; try to get a trace on them. Stop them from leaving. 

She shook her head – she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t strong enough to sell them out. She was just going to let them go… It would only give them a few minutes, and they would probably get away regardless.

But that was what she owed them. A chance. Maybe it was wrong, maybe it was right. She didn’t know. 

…She needed to talk to Eve. 


~~~


“…Well, great,” Monika said, flexing her wrist. “The one time I notice something I should probably do something about, we’re busy.”

“It can’t be that important,” Nanoha said, her hands gripping tightly around one of the TARDIS’s railings. The TARDIS wasn’t shaking – she was just tense. 

“Pinkie’s team just turned traitor.”

The Doctor pulled a lever. “I doubt they see it that way.”

Monika put her hand to the bridge of her nose, saying nothing. 

“How is the plan going?” Nanoha asked.

“The Living Tribunal is leading the charge admirably,” the Doctor reported, pulling a screen down for Nanoha to look at. She saw a display of the core of Gallifrey’s space. The forces of the multiverse were unleashing a heavy assault on the Time Lord’s home, using enough force to tear the causally related universes apart, allowing for the Gallifreyan’s own time-distortion to be used against them. The Many-Angled Ones were proving to be the most helpful in this regard, all the others generally just serving as backup to the eldritch beings and the Living Tribunal.

Even the TSAB had taken second fiddle in the realms of distorted time. 

“They’re going to have to bite,” Nanoha said. “…Even if they know it’s a trap, they have to chance it.”

“For all we know, John’s already come back and given them a different plan,” the Doctor said.

“He hasn’t,” Monika said, certain. “Not yet.”

Nanoha’s frown deepened. “…We have to do this perfectly. There’s no room for error.”

Monika adjusted some files of the TARDIS. “Everything’s in order. The cards are stacked in our favor – courtesy of yours truly.”

“There’s going to be things we didn’t consider,” the Doctor said. “There’s no way around that.”

Nanoha allowed herself to smile. “But we can’t let that deter us.”

The Doctor smiled. “Since when did impossible odds stop us before?”

Monika blinked. “I think you two are mistaking me for a hero.”

“You’re one now, whatever your past was,” Nanoha said. “A-”

“NOW!” the Doctor shouted, pulling a lever on the TARDIS. “John has retconned back!”

The TARDIS jumped across the multiverse, taking a pre-planned route to the middle of the battle to where John had been detected. John himself wasn’t in the midst of the battle – he was hanging around a particular point in reality. 

A point where there was a purposeful weakness in the attacking fleet’s strategy – a hole where a single universe could be pulled and everything would fall apart at a specific time. John had already ruined the universe – the attack on Gallifrey would collapse in a minute, all forced to retreat. 

But they had expected this. The TARDIS appeared next to John as he wrapped up his business. The rogue Gallifreyan spacetime machine forged a mental bond with John – directly connecting the Doctor and the Heir of Breath. 

The mind of the Traveling Doctor was enough to stall John’s corrupted mind for a second. That was all they needed. 

Nanoha nodded to Monika. She rewrote reality in a very specific manner, forming a direct connection to one of the Void’s universes.

Empress Twilight felt it. She pressed her hoof into her control crystal and threw that universe at John, enveloping him and the TARDIS. 

Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at the center of the TARDIS. The Doctor threw some more levers while John tried to make sense of the universe enveloping them. “So sorry,” the Doctor told his ship. 

Nanoha unleashed a beam of energy, intertwining her power with the TARDIS’s inner power. Monika dove for cover. 

Outside, the TARDIS unleashed a brilliant twist of temporal energy, filling the black universe with white streaks. For an instant, time failed to exist – everything was frozen. 

And then the TARDIS exploded, killing all within. 

The energies of time, magic, and ka itself twisted together, surrounding the Void universe with something that it had never been seen before. Empress Twilight shoved all the energy she could from her ancient construct to that one point – they couldn’t let the universe collapse from the impossibilities. John would just escape. They had to keep the unstable physics for as long as it took. 

In the nothingness, several dozen versions of Nanoha, Monika, and the Doctor all appeared – each one split off from a different timeline created when the TARDIS exploded.

John tried to retcon away – and he did. But the entire Void universe and all the alternates came with him. The Void universe automatically connected to the new version of Empress Twilight’s Void, continuing to perpetuate its unstable existence. 

Nanoha pointed all her Raising Hearts at John. 

“HIGH POWER…”

John reacted. He rectonned within the confines of the Void universe, attempting to go back and prevent the TARDIS from splitting. He appeared outside the TARDIS – but of course, he dragged all the Nanohas, Monikas, and Doctors with him. 

The Nanoha inside the TARDIS lowered Raising Heart. Monika let out a strained breath. “Okay, good, we won’t have to die…”

“Except we did,” Nanoha said. “And we’re not done.” 

John laid a hand on the TARDIS and tried to erase it from existence. The outer Monikas altered the code of reality, moving the TARDIS to a different physical location. A few Monikas saved the TARDIS as a file and copied it over and over, only adding more confusion for John to deal with. 

He couldn’t undo what happened because whenever he tried, he dragged the consequences with him. 

Monika laughed as John retconned a copy of himself into existence – also copying every one of the time clones as he did so. “He’s desperate!”

“He’s disconnected,” the Doctor said. “What’s operating in his mind is just an automatic defense protocol. We’ve cut off Gallifrey’s connection to him.”

Nanoha didn’t say anything. She just watched as the other versions of herself unleashed their Starlight Breakers upon the Johns, coupled with the Monikas’ boosts in power. The Doctors weren’t doing much – they weren’t fighters, they were simply there to stabilize reality. 

Which was really needed. Even in a universe as moldable as this Void, the level of interdimensional warping they were pulling off was outrageous. Any universe should have shattered at the seams when something force-altered the way souls were bound in relation to the retcon power. 

The fact that Monika was needed to make this work was telling of how outlandish the plan was. 

The Johns – four now – did the Windy Thing. Gusts blew from nowhere with enough force to tear at the Nanohas’ skin. They took the pain, but a few were hit in unlucky places, severing major arteries. 

“He’s been bloodlusted…” the Doctor said, shaking his head as the winds tore people to shreds. 

“He can’t do anything to all of me,” Monika said with a smirk. “Just have to e-”

The TARDIS that particular Monika was in exploded when a John appeared inside the time-core, triggering an explosion. He had zapped without traveling through time, so all he did was move all his opponents rather than duplicate them. 

“He’s found a weakness,” the Doctor said. “If all the battle takes place in one time…”

“That’s why you’re here!” Monika blurted. “Do some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff!”

Despite herself, Nanoha laughed as the Doctor began to shift the various TARDISes into different local times. 

“Hey! Hey!” several outside Monikas shouted at the various TARDISes. “That’s a bit much!”

“It’s what I’ve got!” the Doctors shouted back. 

One of the outside Monikas hit a John with a giant fish, knocking him out. “One down!”

That Monika was rushed by the remaining Johns – six – and shredded to pieces with wind and zapped into nothingness. The other Monikas tried to revive her – but failed. It was as if she never existed.

“…Why do you look haunted?” Nanoha asked Monika. 

“He’s erasing me from existence,” Monika muttered. “You can’t see it, your memories aren’t ka-based. But I can. Hold on, we need to focus…” 

There were three Johns – but then there were five. 

“He’s retconning subtly, somehow. How is he doing it?”

Nanoha held up Raising Heart. “Ping.”

Raising Heart let out a ping spell, analyzing the situation from the point of view of dozens of alternate device intelligences. “Ping complete. Best description of subtle interaction is a sort of hitchhike effect. Corrections given to the TARDIS.”

Monika pulled up the new files the TARDIS had. “Oh that’s clever…”

“I’m afraid it’s lost on me,” Nanoha admitted, looking at the gibberish on her screen. “It helps us, right?”

“Definitely,” the Doctor said, making the necessary adjustments. “We can turn it back against him… Inversion principle. TARDIS heading 5-43-6, head ahead seventeen seconds and field your anti-time! We need to collide!”

The voice of another Doctor returned. “Got it!” There was a clunk – and suddenly a TARDIS was moving back through time, hitting them before they could realize it. Another set of them all perished in a violent explosion. 

But at the same time, John attempted to use his retcon to ‘ride’ though time, avoiding the assault on the outside. The feedback loop surged through all versions of him fighting at all times and places, consolidating them into their own explosion of conflicting time. However, he was able to retcon himself into safety – into one version of himself. 

“STARLIGHT BREAKER!” the remaining Nanohas shouted, attempting to burn him to unconsciousness. But he wouldn’t go down. 

“Stand back!” several Monikas shouted, altering physics to create true artifacts of death. One touch from such a knife would sap all life from a being. One of her threw it…

…and it hit her. “Wh…” she vanished in a puff of sparkling dust. 

“Retcon works over space too!” the Doctor blurted. “It works over everything!” 

“Good thing we have more than one knife,” a Monika responded, creating several more and teleporting them to her sisters. They cut, stabbed, and slashed at John. However, he became like wind, unable to be touched. 

“Wind is now a physical object,” a Monika muttered, altering the universe’s rules. 

They felt the universe groan at that one. But John was now physical. 

They had one shot left. They needed to make it count. 

Nanoha hadn’t wanted to kill John – but she’d come into here with the full intent of doing so if it was required. Several versions of her had more than enough power to unleash whatever spell they needed without charging. It was time. 

“Full Power Starlight Breaker,” she spoke, summoning the power from all the others. She even took in the essences of the knives to be extra sure. 

The beam of light shot forward – and destroyed everything in the universe in an instant. 

Elsewhere, the original Monika opened her eyes, sitting up in a TSAB storage room. “Well I have some good news. We won’t have to worry about reconsolidating our minds with our alternates.”

Nanoha twitched and let out a sigh. The three of them were standing on the bridge of a TSAB ship. “What was the result?”

“Complete destruction,” Monika reported. “John wasn’t able to defend himself when you unleashed a death-laced Starlight Breaker.”

“I’ve killed myself a hundred times over…” Nanoha muttered, shaking her head. “There’s a reason duplication is illegal.”

The Doctor put his hand on hers. “At least it was worth it. We got rid of their weapon.”

An urgent call appeared on the main screen. Considering how only the Living Tribunal and Empress Twilight knew exactly where they were, this was a little concerning. Nanoha answered. “What?”

“I’m sorry!” the Empress blurted. “At the last minute, the Time Lords attacked. I had to use the Void to protect my worlds…”

Nanoha’s eyes widened.

“He got out. There was one microsecond between the time of my distraction and your spell, and… I should have let his att-”

“No, you protected your people,” Nanoha said. “You had to. …Did anyone get hurt?”

“…No. The Void was easily strong enough to wipe them without any damage. But it was one moment…”

“A moment Rassilon timed perfectly…” Nanoha muttered. For a moment her face twisted in anger – and then it sagged in defeat. “…That won’t work again. We need to think of something else… I really don’t want to stoop to the ritual of purity, but it might be required…“

The Doctor left, going to the ship’s hangar, where the TARDIS sat. He walked up to the doors, a tear in his eyes. “It wasn’t worth it. I sacrificed you and myself dozens of times over… and it didn’t mean anything.”

The TARDIS didn’t respond. 

“The time of war is too far behind me. I thought I could fight without ever picking up a weapon… All we had to do was take care of him, and that was it. There were moments we might have been able to save him.” He shook his head. “Now we’re lost. I’m not even sure taking up arms will do anything.”

There was silence in the hangar for a moment. 

“Are you willing to try?”

The Doctor recognized that voice anywhere. “Flagg. There are very few people Nanoha would kill on sight, you know. It’s not good for you to be here.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Flagg said, strolling into the room. “Are you willing to try taking up arms?”

The Doctor looked at his hands. This body was a young one, but he couldn’t help but see how old and worn the digits were. “I haven’t actually fought in so long…”

“The multiverse is approaching a climax,” Flagg said, removing Black Thirteen from his coat. “Perhaps it’s time for a change, hmm?”

“What side are you on?”

“…I have no side,” Flagg said with a smirk. “I care not if the world goes on or if it collapses into a new form. I’ll continue as I always have either way.”

“You’ve been behind major points of this war.”

“A bit of this, a bit of that,” Flagg said. “I’ve been surprised many times. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I love it.” He held Black Thirteen out to the Doctor. 

“I’m not taking it.”

“You’ve been to the top of the Tower. You can take it.”

“I won’t let that evil artifact torment me.”

“Ah, but it will show you what you want to know. Surely one with as pure a heart and as great a mind as yours could take it?”

“Yes. I could. But what would it mean?”

“It’d give you a solution,” Flagg admitted. “After all, do you know of anything else in the multiverse that might face John?”

The Doctor looked at the orb. He took it in his hands and looked into it, the secrets of the Tower suddenly coming as whispers to his ear. “SBURB… The Rainbow... The Golems… All try and fail to gather the Tower’s true power. Just shadows.”

“John is not more than a shadow,” Flagg said, smirking. “Tell me, Doctor, what do you see?”

“I see a moment,” the Doctor responded, emotionless. “I see the answer.”

“Glad I could help. Have a nice day.” He turned to walk away – leaving Black Thirteen in the Doctor’s hands. 

“Why send it circulating now?” the Doctor asked. “What’s special about now?”

“Look at that moment of yours. Tell me what you think.”

The Doctor didn’t say anything. Flagg was gone. 

The Doctor went into the TARDIS and held Black Thirteen high. 

He placed it on the center console. Goosebumps rippled across his skin as he felt the darkness corrupt his poor TARDIS.

“I’m sorry. …You won’t have to endure this for long.”


~~~


Eve knew what had happened long before Fluttterfree arrived to tell her. 

Pinkie had left a cupcake with a frowning face on Eve’s desk. 

It hadn’t taken Eve much to figure out what it meant. The realization that Pinkie had just left was enough to stun her into silence. Many minutes passed between Eve noticing the cupcake and Flutterfree running in, tears streaking down her face. 

“...Eve…”

“She left,” Eve said, breathless. 

“I… I almost went with her… She made me stay.” 

Eve’s blank expression broke, shifting first into shock, then anger, then relief, confusion, followed by an agonized, tearful scream punctuated with a laser shot from her horn at her desk. 

It missed the cupcake. Somehow. 

“I… she…”

Flutterfree swallowed hard. “You u-”

“Of course I understand!” Eve shouted at the top of her lungs. “I was with Corona, I… I talked to her, I heard her side, I know why she did what she did and…” Eve pulled her face back and winced. “I understand. Yes I understand. But that doesn’t change the fact that it hurts! I should have known, we should have known, we…” Eve stopped short, staring at the cupcake. 

“...What else could we have done?”

“Nothing. Everything…” Eve took a moment to breathe. “I could have held her back. I could have stopped this war. Just refused to let her ask the question.”

“Would that have been right…?”

“No! Yes! I don’t know and I don’t care!” She threw herself into Flutterfree’s hooves. “It would give me my friends back… That’s all I want…”

Flutterfree pulled her close, tears rolling down her face. “We can’t have that…”

“You… you could have left,” Eve said, looking up. “I would have followed you. I…”

“Eve, no.” Flutterfree grabbed her by the shoulders and fixed her in the eyes. “You couldn’t.”

“I could.” Eve laughed nervously. “How many of us care more about our friends than what’s right or wrong? I… I wouldn’t be able to stay here, alone. You’d go… I wouldn’t last long. I’d just want to be with you girls. Who cares about the damn multiverse I just want my friends!” she curled into a ball at Flutterfree’s hooves, shivering. “I just want my friends…”

“I… I do too,” Flutterfree said, enveloping Eve. “I almost… turned my back on everything just for them.”

“Friendship. It… it’s supposed to be magic. It’s supposed to be… why does it feel so wrong? Why... why is the right choice to make them the enemy?” 

Flutterfree looked to the sky. “Friendship is magic.”

“...But friendship isn’t everything,” Eve said, wiping her face. “...Even if all your friends say something is right, they could be wrong. You can’t just… but trust… loyalty… but… AAAAAGH!” She cracked her desk in half with a discharge of magic, blowing her computer screen out and knocking a picture off the wall. 

The cupcake was unharmed. 

Eve levitated the picture to her face. It was her last day as Headmare of the School of Friendship, standing with her friends as they passed the baton on to the next generation. This picture meant a lot to her… it was an image that was Equis Vitis, an event that didn’t happen in most Equises. Twilight didn’t go on to become the sole ruler of Equestria after this; in fact, she hadn’t even been preparing for it. She simply worked alongside the other alicorns… And then she’d found the bowling ball. 

This picture showed her friends. All of them. As they had been before they found the multiverse. As she gazed upon the frame, the students faded into the background, and she saw the ponies she had known most of her life. Herself: small, strong, and optimistic, spreading her wings like a mother around her chicks. Flutterfree, sitting on Discord’s shoulder with a delighted smile and butterflies in her hair. Renee, grinning with a calm grace Twilight hadn’t seen lately. Rainbow Dash… so full of life. Pinkie, both eyes reflecting the joy of the world. Applejack, proud to stand at Eve’s side. Nova, laughing with some of the students and Trixie. 

Sunset… she was there too. Visiting, for the celebration. A fiery unicorn who looked a little nervous but was nonetheless smiling. 

She looked like she wouldn’t hurt a fly. 

“...Should I have destroyed the bowling ball?” Eve asked, voice haunted. “Should I have just… refused the call?” She thought way back to that day in her castle where she wondered if she should devote herself to exploration… or not. 

Had she chosen wrong? 

Had all of this… been wrong? 

“Eve, don’t say that. There are so, so many people we’ve helped.” Flutterfree put her wings around Eve’s shoulders and pulled her close. “Universes that knew nothing but war are now our friends. Great travesties have been averted. Evil has been vanquished, and we’ve all grown stronger.”

“Is it worth… everything?”

“...No. But even if Corona wins, even if she’s right, we… well, we’ve lived our lives the best we can.” She looked up and closed her eyes, tears coming out the side of her face .”And that’s all that matters, in the end.”

Eve looked up as well, but she kept her eyes wide open as the water fell to the ground. She didn’t know what she was looking for. Or… maybe she did, and didn’t want to admit it. 

He looks on the heart.

Eve let out a laugh, burying her face in Flutterfree’s feathers. “I get it… I finally get it…”

“Huh?”

“We… we must do what we know is right. Always. No matter what everyone else may say or do… we must.” She stood tall - legs shaking from her emotional exhaustion. “There’s more than just us…” She lifted the cupcake into the air, holding it before her eyes. “We both fight from pure motives. If we fought any other way… it would be wrong. Fight for what is good… not for… what we want.”

She took a bite of the cupcake. 

It was delicious. 


~~~


Eve walked into a conference call between the remaining powers facing Gallifrey. The TSAB, Void, Many-Angled Ones, the Combine, and the Starcross society was it. Tyrannon had fallen in the push to capture John. The Living Tribunal was struggling to recover from his personal wounds, but was still present on one of the screens. 

Eve gulped. She’d had a long day. Pinkie had left her. Flutterfree had unloaded her emotional struggles onto Eve, reminding the Overhead of all the interpersonal tears that had formed between friends because of these wars. The plan to capture John had failed. People were hurting more than they ever had before.

“Well?” Scarcity blurted. “What’s so important? Get on with it!” 

Eve took a breath. “I… I may have something we can use.”

The faces on the screens all looked at her expectantly. 

She nodded slowly – then stepped to the side. 

Arceus moved into frame, looking at all the screens. “I am Arceus. God of Pokèrin Anima. And I give you this.” He teleported a ball to his hoof. One side was white, the other half was purple with red spots. A large M was imprinted on the purple part. “This is a capture device – a master ball. Most capture devices are relatively useless, only able to work on weakened foes. But the idea behind it is the same regardless – they will take an entity into them, any entity, and imprison them within. Those within cannot escape barring excruciating circumstances.”

“What are you suggesting?” Empress Twilight asked.

Arceus sighed. “I never wanted to use this technology again – but I believe we have no choice. This master ball is a device not only stronger and more advanced than most other capture devices, but it is also infused with a power akin to narrative, or a law of existence. It will capture whatever it is thrown at, regardless of what it is. Anyone. It’s an item so powerful that the number of how many can exist is regulated by the physics of my universes. More cannot be created.”

He narrowed his eyes. “These devices are horrendous things that do nothing but create slaves. But, seeing as all else has failed, they should not be kept back for ethical reasons. They should be used on John.”

“John could escape, easily,” a Combine said. “Your balls could be useful for other aspects of war though… If their ka relation continues.”

“John won’t escape,” the Doctor said, joining the call. He looked tired, and old, but just as determined as ever. “I’ve figured it out.”

“Your last plan went so well,” Scarcity muttered.

“Just trust me. I know what to do.” He looked up, eyelids sagging. “We’ll need more than just a master ball though.”